Sweetheart deal for voter list from DFL may sting Kelliher

Margaret Anderson Kelliher, speaker of the Minnesota House and a leading DFL gubernatorial candidate, is under fire from Democrats and Republicans for a deal with her party that may trigger a state campaign finance investigation.

The Minnesota GOP filed a formal complaint against Kelliher on Friday for her arrangement to have donors pay the DFL directly for access to a prized voter list.

Three donors wrote checks for $500 apiece to the DFL in September.

Should the state board investigate, Kelliher may face prolonged scrutiny at a time when she is trying to win over potential delegates in a tough endorsement fight. Other DFL candidates have signaled party favoritism may taint the endorsement process, which could pave the way for multiple primary challenges.

The $1,500 contributed to the DFL on Kelliher's behalf may violate prohibitions on earmarking party donations and may have broken the law on campaign contribution limits.

The party says it has since offered to refund contributions to the donors -- two of whom are longtime party givers and one of whom is a lobbyist. Kelliher's campaign has made a partial payment of $4,000 for the voter list, which costs $13,000.

The DFL, which previously sanctioned the arrangement with Kelliher, now acknowledges it may have been illegal. Kelliher's campaign manager, Jaime Tincher, a former DFL staffer, said on Friday she informed the campaign finance board "of a possible violation of state campaign finance law."

DFL Party Chairman Brian Melendez said Friday that "the party made a mistake and needs to correct it."

Melendez said the party's executive director, Andy O'Leary, thought an earlier campaign finance board opinion approved of such arrangements, but no such opinion exists.

"We were told that this was an option available, and we thought it was available to everyone," Kelliher said. "Clearly, it apparently wasn't."

The same treatment

The deal unraveled after DFL gubernatorial candidate Tom Rukavina, a state representative from Virginia, got wind of it and queried Kelliher.

"I told him I thought he should call the party and ask for the same treatment because that's what I thought it was -- the same treatment," Kelliher said.

When Rukavina called, party officials said they realized they shouldn't have allowed Kelliher's donors to contribute to her purchase of the database. Melendez said he learned of the arrangement on Dec. 1, but nothing was made public until reports by two news media outlets -- Minnesota Public Radio and the St. Paul Pioneer Press -- on Friday.

Fellow DFL gubernatorial candidates say they are disturbed by the party's arrangement with a single candidate.

"I just want a fair process," said Sen. Tom Bakk, DFL-Cook. "And right now I just have some questions as to whether it is or not," he said. "It's pretty troubling."

Bakk said his campaign paid the full $13,000 up front for the list Kelliher received.

State Rep. Paul Thissen, a DFL gubernatorial candidate who, like Kelliher, is from Minneapolis, said that "it's really important that everybody is playing by the same rules in this campaign, and the fact that it looks like that hasn't been the case is concerning to me."

Ramsey County Attorney Susan Gaertner, another DFL candidate, said the arrangement raises legal questions.

"We don't have all the facts, but I guess we know enough to wonder: What the heck were they thinking? I don't think it takes a rocket scientist or even a lawyer to know that if what we've heard is true it's probably a violation of the law," Gaertner said.

Dana Houle, DFL candidate Matt Entenza's campaign manager, said the arrangement "compromised the integrity of the DFL."

The state Republican party called the deal a "scheme to deliberately circumvent" campaign finance law.

"This isn't a gray area," said GOP party chair Tony Sutton.

Donor was asked to give

One person who participated in the arrangement was Richard Ginsberg, a lobbyist who said he did so because he had already given Kelliher's campaign committee the maximum individual contribution of $500.

Ginsberg said Tincher told him he could further help Kelliher by giving money to the DFL for her purchase of their Voter Activation Network, used to identify likely Democratic supporters.

"Jaime and the campaign brought up the ability to send money to the party," Ginsberg recalled Friday. "They said you could donate to the party for ... they called it the VAN, it's a voter file.

"Jamie brought up the point that people could contribute to the party for the purposes of getting this voter file, which of course would have been for Margaret."

Ginsberg said he doesn't recall if he specifically noted on his check that the $500 was to be used for the database.

He said he had no reason to believe that the arrangement wasn't in accordance with campaign finance laws. "I'm not going to write a check that's illegal," Ginsberg said. "I did so within the context of the law based on what I was asked to do by the campaign."

Under campaign finance laws, candidates for governor are barred this year from raising more than $95,800 from certain groups. They include lobbyists and political action committees, and individuals who give more than $250 each.

In addition, individuals are prohibited from contributing more than $500 this year.

Gary Goldsmith, executive director of the state agency that oversees campaign finance laws, declined to comment Friday on whether they had received a letter from the party acknowledging the arrangement and on whether the board will investigate the complaint.

But Goldsmith said that in general, a contribution on behalf of a campaign is considered an in-kind contribution and would count against the overall annual contribution limit.

"The problem would arrive if the candidate had already reached some applicable limit on behalf of donors," Goldsmith said, based on public reports on the situation.

The amount all the candidates raised this year will be made public on Feb. 1.

Rachel E. Stassen-Berger • 651-292-0164 Pat Doyle • 651-222-1210